An Uproar of Flames
by CuteKittyTV
Summary: With acceptance being a hard thing to find, six unknown friends shall take a chance in a quest that could quite possibly cause eternal darkness.
1. P R O L O G U E

"What shall we do?" Zeus' booming voice entered the silence head on. He had been watching this girl for so long, and she looked harmless. But was she really? Her father was dangerous. Nothing good was going for her with all of this opposition from the gods. Maybe it was wise just to put her out of her misery now.

"Nothing," Apollo's words ended in laughter from his side of things, his teeth shining like the bright sun. "She is already in this world, give her a chance."

Hera seemed to growl at that. "We Gods keep our promises!"

"And promises are made to be broken," Apollo smiled back at her. "We should be kind, give her our gifts and let her be. This discussion ends here."

Hera's face flushed crimson. Her blond hair flowed down the side of her white gown, but she still looked like she was about to explode. "How dare you?" she spat. "How dare you appose me? I am the Queen of-"

"Silence Hera!" Zeus yelled. The entire hall which the gods were gathered in shook with the sound of his voice. "The girl has suffered enough. Apollo is right. We should be the compassionate, merciful Gods that we are supposed to be and let her live. "But all immortals knew the calm would not last forever, and by the Gods they could live forever.

"Well, I think we should seek the council of the Goddess of wisdom to settle this matter," Artemis cut in. She hated it when the gods argued. It was clear to those around her that she was anxious to rejoin her hunters down on earth.

Still, Athena graciously smiled at the praise and nodded her head, causing Poseidon to grunt unhappily. Athena pretended not to hear him, and said. "I do not think it wise to let her live. She is more powerful than any demigod that I've ever encountered before, and she could well be the destruction of all that we hold dear."

"But think of her potential!" Ares exclaimed, jumping off his seat. "Athena, you are the greatest strategist I know! You of all Gods must see her use in times of war!"

Athena seemed to contemplate this for a moment. "Perhaps we should have a vote," she muttered.

With that suggestion, the hall of the gods was sent into uproar. Several of the gods were professing that the vote was absurd, where as others were screaming that it was their right and that it should go ahead. In the end, Zeus broke the silence again. "When will you shut up?!" he yelled, for once not speaking in his posh godly way. The room went silent. Several of the gods who had jumped out of their chairs in frustration returned to their thrones.

"All those in favour of disposing of the girl, raise your hands now," Zeus commanded, his stormy eyes staring at his counterparts and burning through their very souls. Slowly, as though not to anger the bears that sat around them, Artemis, Hera, Athena, Dionysus and Demeter raised their hands. "And all those in favour of letting her live?" Zeus asked. This time, Poseidon, Apollo, Hephaestus, Ares, Aphrodite and Hermes raised their hands. The girl had won her life thanks to a single vote.

"Then it's settled," Zeus declared, ignoring the wicked looks that he was getting from his wife. "The girl shall live. See to it that she is lead to Camp Half Blood when she turns twelve."

Hera sighed. Her husband could be so headstrong, so stubborn, that he would often not even consider the consequences of his actions. This girl would be more trouble than it was worth, anyone could see that. Athena had admitted it. So why then, were they letting her live? It didn't matter anyway, not anymore. The mighty Hera needed no permission. This girl would be dead before she reached the age of sixteen.


	2. O L I V I A I

"Livvy," a soft whisper entered Olivia's dreams. It had been so long since she had a decent nights sleep; a night without nightmares or screams. Even the hard wooden floor on which she slept seemed much more comfortable when she wasn't thrashing around in her sleeping bag and kicking the other campers in the face. "Livvy, wake up," the voice repeated.

Olivia heard the voice, but she wasn't ready to get up yet. If anything, it made her more desperate to stay asleep. Just to prove that waking people up wasn't polite, she would stay asleep, and hopefully they wouldn't try to wake her anymore. She rolled over, her frizzy brown hair tangled in a nest on top of her head. She always did look like a zombie when she slept. "Livvy!" the girls voice said again, getting sterner. Fat chance, Olivia thought.

"This is getting ridiculous!" the girl exclaimed. Olivia smiled. She could tell that whoever was next to her was getting frustrated. "WAKE UP SO WE CAN ALL EAT!" the girl called again.

The scream scared her to death. She sat bolt upright in bed, only see the bright blue eyes of her friend staring at her. Kirsty was always a sweet girl, and if she was trying to do something, it was with her best interests in mind. "What?" She pressed on carefully, a groggy feeling passed over her.

"Breakfast," Kirsty spoke, "Josh is still asleep. Please help." And so, Olivia slowly got up and walked over to her friend. He was heavy in his sleep and didn't look like he would move for hours. Either way they both shoved him over and shouted loudly in his ears. After a few moments he covered his ears and groaned, "You bastard." But it didn't hold any threat in the undertone.

As he came too, and his eyes adjusted to the morning night, he stared right at the two girls. "Ahh!" he yelped. "Oh Olivia, it's only you. I thought that a monster had somehow got into the cabin."

"Very funny!" she snapped in reply, scooping up her things and heading to the bathroom.

"Um, Livvy, We only have two minutes till breakfast. You don't have time to freshen up," Kirsty mumbled.

Olivia stopped, turned and flashed Kirsty a brace-filled grin. "Is that a challenge?"

Kirsty's face dropped. "No, No," she began, but Olivia had already accepted. She was a naturally competitive person, she just couldn't help it.

Olivia slammed the door behind her, and immediately began to struggle into her jeans and orange camp half blood t-shirt. "Time me okay?" she called as she attempted to pull a brush through her wild hair.

Kirsty placed her palm to her face, _was she honestly doing this again… _Josh stepped up and went as if to go outside. "Oh no, you don't." With a confused look she continued, "Go wash, then shower after breakfast."

The whole cabin knew how disgusting he got. He didn't shower often enough for Kirsty's liking. Josh rolled his eyes and went into the boy's bathroom. Just as he did, Livvy came out beaming. "I told you I could do it!" she taunted, although her hair hadn't been brushed that well and it was obviously bugging Kirsty.

"Come on then," Olivia muttered, hoisting a backpack containing all of her possessions onto her shoulder.

"Do you really need to take all of your clothes to breakfast with you?" Kirsty asked, genuinely confused.

"Yes. Hermes is the god of thieves, remember. I don't fancy leaving everything I own with his children," Olivia retorted.

"Good point," Kirsty agreed. "Maybe Joel will look after them until later."

Realizing that it would be a while before Josh was finished in the shower, Kirsty and Olivia left the cabin. Olivia was twelve now, and Kirsty almost a year younger. Both of them had been at camp for six months, and had become friends for only one reason. They were both unclaimed. Neither of them had any idea who their godly parent was, and only knew that it was one of the female Gods. The Hermes cabin had accepted them though, because Hermes is the god of travellers, and accepts anyone who used the roads.

The two girls walked across the semi-circle of cabins and headed for the Athena one, the one that housed their friend Joel. This building was blue and gold with an owl carved over the doorway and with plain white curtains. Olivia had only been inside once, but she remembered it well. The inside had a workshop and a library, with bunk beds pushed up against the wall. The library was filled with bookshelves and thousands of books and old scrolls, as well as tables and chairs for them to study and read. The workshop was also filled with tables and workbenches, with cupboards filled with materials to build things. There were also some 3-D models of buildings. There were blueprints, old war maps, and armour displayed on the walls. It reminded Olivia of an old war museum, which was one of the places that she loved to be.

Olivia walked up to the door and rasped her knuckles against the door. Sure enough, Joel, a dark haired boy, poked his head around the door, his glasses falling off his nose. "Breakfast?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. Olivia could tell that he had been up all night, probably studying if she knew the Athena kids.

Kirsty nodded. "We didn't want to leave our stuff in the Hermes cabin," she explained. "We wondered if we could leave them here?"

Joel smiled. "How very…. wise of you," he remarked, taking the girl's bags and disappearing back inside the cabin. When he next emerged, a trail of tired looking kids followed him. Apparently he had spread the word about breakfast.

"What have you been doing in there?" Kirsty asked.

"We were revising strategy for the next game of capture the flag," Joel said with a shrug. "You know how hard it can be to break our study pattern."

Kirsty nodded, clearly not feeling awake enough to start having intellectual discussions with Joel Campbell of all people. So, silently, She led them towards the breakfast hall.

The girls reached the breakfast hall, and sat down at the Hermes table. As Dionysus was the camp director, the goblets on the table could fill with whatever they desired. Olivia asked for mango smoothie, and it appeared!

Then the kids all got their food, and as was the custom, went and queued up to make an offering to their parent god. It felt wrong to Olivia to be making an offering to a god that didn't even want to claim her, and a waste of a good piece of bacon, but she didn't exactly want to be struck be lightning or something either. So she queued up behind the rest of the Hermes table, and waited her turn.

When Olivia reached the little golden dish where the offerings went, she popped a small chunk of bacon into it and muttered under her breath "Mother, if you're listening, I would appreciate it if you claimed me. I mean it. Please accept this bacon blah, blah, blah." Then she walked back to the table and sat next a now clean Josh, who seemed to materialise from nowhere, and opposite Kirsty.

Olivia hadn't realised how hungry she was. As soon as the food reached her lips, she found that she was gobbling the rest down far too quickly. Josh was doing the same, only to make things worse, he was grunting like a pig as he ate, whilst Kirsty watched with disgust.

"You both eat like animals," she said.

"Well, if you don't eat quickly on the Hermes table, you will find that your food goes missing. My siblings are thieves you know."

By the time Kirsty looked down at her plate all of her food was gone. The boys around her giggled at her anger, and Josh gave her a look that said, I told you so.

"I can't wait until I'm claimed and I can leave this table!" Kirsty shouted.

"That's not going to happen Calcutt," Olivia replied. "Our mothers do not care."

"Well, I've been thinking," Kirsty began, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Maybe, you and I haven't been claimed because we haven't proved ourselves. Maybe we need to speak to the oracle."


	3. O L I V I A II

Olivia had decided. Kirsty was mad. Crazy. Bonkers in the head. As if the camp would ever allow two unclaimed demigods out on a quest that could quite possibly cost them their lives. It's not that she didn't like adventure, because Olivia always loved proving people wrong, it was more the fact that neither one of them seemed to have the favour of the gods at the moment. Plus there were monsters out there.

The three kids ate the rest of the meal in silence. Josh kept glancing at Kirsty, almost as though he was afraid that she would just drop everything and do something insane. It was obvious that he would not be joining the girls on the quest, which was a shame because as a claimed child of Hermes, he had a pair of flying shoes and was good with a sword. He would have been an asset. Joel might join, if Olivia begged. But she didn't want to go on this quest either, so why was she even thinking about it?

That was when it hit her. Kirsty knew that this topic would sit with Olivia until she did something about it. She knew that her friend would view it as some sort of challenge, and that would make her act. Well no way. She wasn't falling for that. She was strong enough to let this go.

No one under estimates Olivia Cooper.

"I'll see you guys later," Olivia called as she left the food hall, without even bothering to look back at her friends. She needed some time to think.

The minute that she stepped out of the food hall, Olivia was hit by how nice it was out. Like always, sun shone over the camp, and there was not a single cloud in the sky. A gentle breeze rushed through the leaves of the trees that surrounded the camp, and even rustled the leaves on Thalia's tree, the tree that provided the magical shield around the camp boarder.

Dryads ran around the clearing in the centre of the camp, giggling as the dazed satyrs attempted to chase them down. One nymph was almost caught by a particularly fast satyr with muscular legs, but she turned into a tree before he could plant a big sloppy kiss on her cheek. Over in the distance, Olivia could just make out the Aphrodite kids tending the Pegasi. She could see the great white wings stretch out to the sun, and hear the playful whinnying of the content animals. Life was good here. This was home.

The thing that most caught Olivia's attention was the chink of sword on sword over by the forest. That meant that people were already out training. Just what Olivia needed to take her mind of things: a good fight. There was nothing like beating some kid to brighten your day.

With a spring in her step, Olivia headed over to the far side of the camp. The armoury was a beautiful place, especially to the Athena and Ares kids. Olivia herself loved the fact that holding a weapon in her hands, she knew that written in the celestial bronze blade or the handle were tails of great victory, or bitter failure. And in the future, some other demigod like her would take hold of the blade, perhaps oblivious to the amazing things that it had achieved.

And the fates seemed to comply, with a small twist.

"Oi!" A short but large girl turned to her. "What do you think you're doing?!"

_Whoops_, maybe bumping into one of the Ares girls wasn't the best idea Livvy had.

And yes, she was one of the bodybuilders.

_Fudge._

At her silence the Ares girl grew even angrier. "Do you want to fight?" She exclaimed, "Sword on sword." A grin sprouted on her face at the word sword, as if it held great glory. Well, this was going great already.

Olivia seemed to get larger in her stance. Accepting the challenge physically that the fighter had set against her. "We shall." Confidence was burning in her tone.

The girl seemed shocked for a moment, then realised she had time to fight against a dummy of a girl. A large grin stretched over her lips.

The Ares child took Olivia with her, both were unarmed, so Olivia was dragged into the arena. And a sword was quickly handed to her.

Olivia pulled on armour, feeling the cold metal, heavy against her warm body. Maybe this wasn't a great idea of hers; after all, fighting a stronger fighter did not look like it would end well for her. Olivia wasn't the strongest. The oncoming fight didn't help.

Olivia wasn't one to give up though.

So she pulled herself together, letting her nervousness ring out into nothing.

"Ready!" The Ares child shouted with an enthusiasm that was extreme, and filled with happiness even though this fight could only end with pain on Olivia's count.

"Ready!" Olivia shouted in a response, even though she did not feel ready in the slightest. So they walked with a defensive stance, but walked as if a magnet were keeping them from pushing any further.

But Olivia, seeing a tactical move, decided to change that quickly. Running towards the girl, adrenaline fuelled her steps.

The girl grinned. Being a child of a War God, she found it easy to interpret other fighter's attacks.

Olivia was easily deflected and her tall frame collapsed to the harsh floor, her dark curls billowed with the fall.

But her challenge wouldn't fail so easily.

Olivia stood, a new confidence pressing her to make a calculated swing at the Ares child.

It hit.

But the other girl placed her sword between herself and the opposing sword at the last second.

Olivia's sword was swung across the arena and she was pushed down again. But she still would not give up. She picked herself up and ran to her sword, the other girl had followed slowly, like a predator after her prey.

With her sword back in her palm, Olivia stared back at the child of Ares. They swung at each other, again and again. A few people gathered, they watched the two girls fight as if they had practised for years together. It was natural.

The fight lasted for a few minutes; both of them had grins upon their faces and sweat rolling down their neck and face.

Olivia collapsed one last time. But she knew that she had not been defeated, quite the opposite actually, she had a new friend: one that she could fight and not argue with later in the day.

This time she held a hand to help her up. "The name's Jess, that's some great fighting skills you have there."

Olivia practically beamed at her, "Thanks, my name is Olivia."

"Cool, look forward to seeing you then."

And Olivia knew she had definitely found a new friend.


End file.
